Rick Smith

Brought TASER to life. Built Axon. Now reimagining public safety with AI and ambition. Tech meets impact, at scale.

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

Axon Body 5 is here. 25x the AI processing power, 20% more battery life, better low-light video. The Pro adds a camera built to scan licenses, so officers keep eyes up and hands free instead of looking down at a notepad.
Safer officer. Better-served community.
https://t.co/KYJS9Muadb

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

@stepango @bot @bot show me an example in my app

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

It's hard to watch all the new content people are creating with AI that just became possible this week and not feel that the world has changed. I spent about 30 min writing a prompt and woke up to an incredible 12-minute cinematic experience. Mine isn't ready to share yet, but I found this one particularly beautiful this morning. I hope it brightens your day.

[John Knopf @johnknopf]

when I was a kid this was science fiction. i've watched AI type for years, but hearing it and seeing what it made is a whole different level.

i asked @claudeai opus 5.5 to introduce itself, however it wanted without any token usage restrictions and access to any api it wanted. it decided to write a song, make a video, visualize itself and give an interview behind the music.

it also wrote this thread 🧵

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

Last week Merck and Moderna reported the first successful Phase 3 trial of a personalized cancer vaccine, built from a patient's own tumor. A real result. Still not approved.

MIT's AI-designed antibiotics have cleared drug-resistant infections in mice. No human has taken one yet.
The discoveries are landing faster than anyone predicted. Getting them to a person is the harder problem.

The CRISPR cure for sickle cell disease was approved almost three years ago. About sixty patients have received it. Sixty thousand are eligible.

Move too fast and you put something into the world before anyone understands what it actually does. Move too carefully and the sixty thousand keep waiting. Neither approach is without cost and risk.

I hear a version of this from every public safety leader I talk to. New technology moves fast. Finding the right pace to bring it to the people it's meant to protect, fast enough to matter, careful enough to trust, is the actual job

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

https://t.co/L9pZUuZMIB

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

Two numbers from the FBI's new crime report don't fit together.

Violent crime fell 9.3% in 2025, the biggest one-year drop since 1936. Murder rate tied for lowest ever recorded.

Assaults on officers hit a 10-year high. 13.8 per 100 officers.

I won't speculate why. Nobody studying this full time claims to know yet.

What I know: the country got safer, and one group paid for a lot of it. I spend a lot of time with officers. The more time I spend with them, the more grateful I am.

I got into this business because two friends were shot and killed in 1993. Wrote a book called The End of Killing. In 2022 we set a moonshot to cut gun deaths between police and the public in half by 2033. That number includes officers.

Same fight. Better tools before the door. Better data instead of guesswork.

We cut violent crime 9.3% in a year. Why would 13.8 be the number we accept? #ProtectLife

👇 FBI 2025 Crime Statistics

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

“It’s 801 miles across Texas, we’ve got a full tank of gas, a half pack of protein bars, it’s hot, and we’re wearing smartglasses. Hit it.”

@MikeWagers is fresh off a well-earned sabbatical (our Extended Time Off program every five years), and what better way to kick things back off than a Texas road trip with his fellow Blues Brother?

Three days: Fort Worth, Dallas, Laredo, San Antonio, Austin, El Paso and Huntsville. Met a couple dozen agencies in one-on-ones and group sessions.

The thing that stands out is just what incredibly wonderful people make the decision to strap on body armor to keep the rest of us safe. It's a privilege to be on the support crew for this community.

As Jake and Elwood might say, “We’re on a mission for good!”

Now, happy to go home, a little tired, and get to see my kids.
#TexasStrong #ProtectLife

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

https://t.co/7znL8F5ArH

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

Round two of our AI Accelerators competition kicked off this week at Axon. Open to everyone. Find a way to use AI to move a real business outcome.

The White House is running a version of the same experiment on roughly the same calendar.

OSTP published a report this summer arguing American science has gotten slow, that too much money runs through legacy institutions instead of reaching the people doing the work. Back individual researchers and small teams directly. Build the research future around AI.

I am a builder, not a policy expert. But round one told me something I already believed. The best AI ideas did not come from a central innovation group. They came from the people standing closest to the problem. The customer living with it every day, and the person on our team who cannot stop thinking about it.

Our winning project took what the team had learned from customers and applied it internally. It is in production now. That team and their partners came with me to Cabo, and I learned more about what they navigate day to day than I would have in a year of meetings.

Round two runs through Thanksgiving. Scored independently, not on the pitch but on what the thing actually did once it ran. Measured impact, evidence you can check, whether another team could repeat it.

The Genesis Mission announces its next research awards this fall. Agencies file implementation plans around the same time.

Two experiments, same question, same calendar.

Thirty years in, the pattern has not changed. Every time I have bet on talented people close to the work and on the officers and customers willing to think a problem through with us, it has been a win for everyone.

The best AI ideas came from the people closest to the problem. Who is closest to yours?

OSTP Recommendations for Renewing American Scientific Discovery 👇

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

In 2017 every surgeon in town told my father he wouldn't survive a cancer operation. One of them called it "suicide by surgery."

So instead of an operating table, I took him to Oregon to see a total eclipse. Pulled the kids out of school. We all knew the trip was his last.

During totality, the sun disappears at midday. Birds go quiet. Wind picks up. Stars and planets burst across a blue sky gone black. The halo of God emerges.

After we flew home that night, one surgeon called back. "You're going to die anyway, so let's just try." Operated the next morning.

Phillips Smith lived another four years off that gamble.

I've chased every totality since. Argentina. Dallas. Skipped Antarctica, still think about it.

Last week, Spain. Boat off Es Vedrà, eclipse at sunset. A cloud rolled in 20 minutes out. We gunned it north to outrun it. Lost by 90 seconds.

But the sun broke back out right as totality ended. Then 25 minutes of an impossible crescent sun setting into the sea, low enough we didn't need glasses. Sun and moon plunged into the ocean together.

My dad would have loved the adventure. And I think it's somehow sweeter that we didn't quite catch this one.

Take enough risks and some of them get away from you. Take them anyway.

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

Excited to be on stage at #AllInSummit Sept 14.
The opportunity: using AI + drones + camera networks + less-lethal tools to drive down violence and crime — WITHOUT building the tools of political oppression or mass surveillance.

That’s the conversation I’m looking forward to having.

[The All-In Podcast @theallinpod]

🚨 The All-In Summit 2026 Speaker Announcement:

Jensen Huang (@JensenHuang), CEO of NVIDIA
Satya Nadella (@satyanadella), CEO of Microsoft
Jared Isaacman (@rookisaacman), NASA Administrator
Gwynne Shotwell (@Gwynne_Shotwell), President and COO of SpaceX
Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli), Investor
Nick Shirley (@nickshirleyy), Independent Journalist
Jake Paul (@jakepaul), Investor and Entrepreneur

Plus, appearances from your favorite Besties Guesties, Brad Gerstner (@altcap) and Bill Gurley (@bgurley)!

More speaker announcements coming soon. Be there when it happens this September 13-15: https://t.co/e4PyODqQ9b #AllInSummit

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

https://t.co/w65dfswbhJ

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

Last week Montana became the first state where an experimental drug can be sold to any consenting adult. 

Most of us know someone in one of two situations. A chronic condition that medicine never had a good answer for. Or a person we love running out of time against a disease that will not wait.

That gap always nags the problem solver in me. A promising treatment might sit in trials for a decade before it reaches the people who need it most. Now with science about to make a hyperjump in speed, it’s even more important that the path from a lab to a doctor’s hand keep up.

Montana's answer is not to remove the guardrails. Every case goes to a review board that includes a licensed physician and an ethicist, and the patient gives full informed consent. It is a door opening, with qualified people watching who walks through it.

I won’t pretend this settles the hardest questions. It does not. But a consenting adult, sitting across from a doctor, choosing to try something sooner rather than never, feels like hope.

The builders are ready. The real question is how fast we let good judgment catch up to good science.

Link below 👇

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

The most useful person in a product meeting is often the one who thinks you’re getting it wrong.

Recorded a Boldly Go today with Chief Jeri Williams and Dr. Broderick Turner. A police chief and a researcher who studies how surveillance tech shapes judgment. Neither is there to agree with me. That’s the point.

In a world sorting into echo chambers, I’m grateful for people who’ll sit in the harder room and find common ground on the problems most avoid. Not easy. Most worthwhile work I know.

Episode soon.

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

For years I thought my dad was making a mistake.

He survived a life-threatening diagnosis at 78. I figured he'd earned the right to slow down.

Instead he started a company at 80, in a field he'd never worked in. Learning, building, solving problems, right up until the end.

I thought the stress would kill him. He came from people who died young. I was wrong.

My mom took the opposite path. Always healthy, always active, good genes. But as she grew less intellectually engaged, her world got smaller. At 72 she developed dementia. Within a few years she no longer recognized her grandchildren.

My dad stayed sharp to the end. He died in the arms of his two sons the day after his goodbye party, still laughing, still telling stories.

His body failed. His mind never did.

This morning I read about SuperAgers, people in their 80s with the memory of someone decades younger. What struck me was what the researchers didn't find. It wasn't better genes.

That made me think of my parents. My dad always had problems to solve, people to engage with, a reason to get up.

Maybe healthy aging isn't just about protecting the brain. Maybe it's about giving it a reason to keep growing.

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

https://t.co/xH8mWAwzW1

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

One of the biggest misconceptions about AI is that it's coming for everyone's jobs. I think it's doing something much more interesting.
It's giving ordinary people capabilities that used to require entire teams of specialists.

Google's new AI & Economy ATLAS study analyzed roughly 15 million real-world AI interactions across 800+ occupations.

Their conclusion?

People aren't primarily using AI to replace entire jobs.
They're using it to research faster, analyze more information, write better, troubleshoot problems, and make better decisions.

In other words...
AI is changing tasks faster than it's changing jobs.
That aligns almost perfectly with the strategy we've been building at @axon_enterprise.

We don't think AI replaces first responders.
We think it gives them superpowers.

Draft One removes hours of report writing while improving quality.
Brief One helps investigators and prosecutors find the evidence that actually matters instead of drowning in digital evidence.
Axon Assistant lets officers naturally access information, perform database lookups, translate conversations in real time, and spend less time on the radio and more time focused on the people in front of them.

That's the opportunity.

Remove friction.
Increase capability.
Give people more time to do the uniquely human parts of the job: judgment, empathy, communication, and decision-making.

I don't think AI's killer app is replacing people.
I think it's finally letting people operate at the full extent of their potential.
Source: Google's AI & Economy ATLAS 👇

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

Deputy Matthew Camp went into the water without hesitation and brought a missing 9-year-old boy with autism safely back to his family. St. Mary's County deputies and a dozen partner agencies found him fast.

Autism is part of my own family, so this one lands close.

A child on the spectrum can move toward danger instead of away from it and may not read a uniform as safety. When responders know that going in, it changes the outcome.

Grateful for every responder on this one. #ProtectLife

[St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office @firstsheriff]

On Friday, July 17, 2026, deputies from the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of a missing 9-year-old child with autism in the Hollywood area.

A coordinated search quickly began with the assistance of the Maryland State Police, Maryland Natural Resources Police, Maryland State Police Aviation Command (Trooper 7), the St. Mary’s County Department of Emergency Services, and multiple local fire and EMS agencies.

The child was located in a nearby body of water. Without hesitation, Deputy Matthew Camp entered the water, swam to the child, and brought him safely to shore. The child was evaluated by medical personnel at the scene and was reunited with his family. We are grateful to share that he is doing well.

This body-worn camera footage captures just a portion of the teamwork, professionalism, and courage displayed by first responders during this incident. We are grateful for the positive outcome and proud of the dedication shown by all who responded.

This video has been edited to protect the privacy of the child and to focus on the response.
#FirstSheriff

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

https://t.co/lsz2FIt9Kg

[Rick Smith @AxonRick]

Most people are trying to quit coffee. I started drinking it in my 40s — on purpose, as a longevity protocol.

It happened in a meeting with our medical advisors. Someone brought up the studies showing coffee drinkers live longer. The room did what rooms do — jokes about whether Folgers had funded it.

Then the laughing stopped and every one of them said the science was solid. I went home that night and told my wife — a lifelong daily drinker — "show me the way."

So it was good to see the American Heart Association recently reverse a generation of advice. (Link below ⬇️)

The old line: palpitations, high blood pressure, stress? Cut the coffee.

They went back to the actual data. Up to about five cups of black coffee a day is safe for most adults — and it tracks with lower cardiovascular risk across a range of conditions.

The old advice was intuition. The new position is evidence.

I like it when the science catches up to what the people doing hard work already ran on.

Coffee doesn't build anything. It just keeps good people at it a little longer.

The pot stays on.👇